Summary Of County Checks

In May of 2009, Reality Check First Coast brought together 300 leaders from diverse sectors in the First Coast (Northeast Florida) Region to think about how and where we should grow in the next 50 years.  In October and November of 2009, the same regional visioning exercise was conducted in each of the seven counties in the Region (Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns).  These County Check exercises added additional voices, not only those of leaders, to the group of residents that have participated in the visioning exercise and shared their views in post-event polling.  County Checks also allowed for county perspectives to be applied to the exercise.  Staff from the Northeast Florida Regional Council has reviewed the results of County Checks.  Here is what they found:

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Reality Check First Coast and the County Checks all began with a discussion of the Guiding Principles that should guide growth for the next 50 years.  The Principles that were cited at Reality Check First Coast were repeated frequently at County Checks.

BUILDING THE VISION

Once County Check participants had identified their Guiding Principles, they built their vision for growth in the Region over the next 50 years, using the assumptions for growth that were provided to them.  They used LEGO® bricks and yarn to create their vision for the future, on a map of the Region that had no county lines.  The growth patterns they created fell into four development patterns.

DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS

The 30 Reality Check First Coast visions fell into one of four growth patterns:  Corridor (10 tables), Multiple Growth Centers (8 tables), Dispersed (7 tables), and Urban Compact (5 tables).  The 24 County Check visions fell into the same categories as follows: Corridor (8 tables), Multiple Growth Centers (9 tables), Dispersed (4 tables), and Urban Compact (3 tables). 

When polled for their preferences after learning of the results of the event, those surveyed made similar choices in both cases.  38% preferred the Multiple Growth Centers pattern after Reality Check First Coast, and 43% preferred that pattern after County Checks.  32% preferred the Corridor pattern after Reality Check First Coast, and 21 % preferred that pattern after County Checks. 7% preferred the Dispersed pattern after Reality Check First Coast, and 7% preferred that pattern after County Checks. 23% preferred the Urban Compact pattern after Reality Check First Coast, and 29% preferred that pattern after County Checks.

BARRIERS and SOLUTIONS

Participants in all of the exercises then discuss the barriers to implementing their visions, and solutions to address those barriers.  Again, the ideas that came up at reality Check First Coast were raised again at County Checks, with some additional ideas.

THEMES/BIG IDEAS

Both County Checks and Reality Check First Coast gathered Themes and Big Ideas that the participants wanted to ensure were not lost.  These were very diverse and it is difficult to compare results, but it was observed that County Checks brought up the idea of environmental and agricultural protection more frequently than any other, while polling at Reality Check First Coast put its priority relatively low.

PEOPLE AND JOBS

Data was gathered at County Checks to see how many people and jobs participants wanted to place in each of their counties.  These results were added together and averaged to get a picture of the Region if all of the counties were to achieve the level of growth they preferred when the County Check visions were created.  Overall, if each county achieved the average level of growth from County Checks, the Region would gain 2,291,250 people and 1,138,413 jobs by 2060; in contrast to the 1.6 million people and 650,000 jobs projected to be added to the Region in the assumptions for Reality Check First Coast.

OVERALL OBSERVATIONS

County Checks validated many of the results of Reality Check First Coast.  They also added other ideas to the regional visioning dialogue that were not takeaways from the larger exercise. Given the additional emphasis that was placed on these ideas  by participants at County Checks, we consider it imperative that we discuss them as a part of the work to be done on First Coast Vision:  jobs-housing balance, drinking water, regional transit, private property rights, job creation, making growth pay for itself and the protection of environmental and agricultural lands.

On the subject of the jobs-housing balance, it is not difficult to see why participants in County Checks would support putting more jobs and people in their counties.  As county residents, they are most familiar with the impacts to their county of the current difficult economic climate, poverty, unemployment and long commutes to other counties for jobs, and have a justifiable desire to address them.  The challenge for First Coast Vision will be to establish a vision for the future that works for the Region as a whole and each county individually, regardless of the rate at which the Region, or any individual county, grows.  One reason this is possible is that changes in growth patterns can result in cost savings for individual travel and infrastructure investment, lessen impacts to the natural environment, and make the Region more attractive to business, thereby making it easier for all to address the economic well-being of residents.

Baker County

Clay County

Duval County

Flagler County

Nassau County

Putnam County

St. Johns County